May 12, Columbia Medical School Faculty Club, W. 168th St. (betw. Broadway & Fort Washington Ave.), 212-305-4975; 5, Free.

I never knew that Columbia Medical School even had a program in Narrative Medicine, but now that I do I’m happy that Siri Hustvedt, the novelist and author of the neurological memoir The Shaking Woman Or A History of My Nerves, will be speaking there. She’ll be speaking with Dr. Maurice Peter about unexplained medical systems and viewing illness as a story, one, one hopes, with a happy ending.

Bottom Line: Ladiesandgents, introducing the new Oliver Sacks—and the idea that doctors are only as good as the stories they can tell!